Many conventional headbands are made of hard plastic materials. These hard headbands can be uncomfortable for any of several reasons. The tips commonly apply too much pressure to the area of the head behind the ears and above the neck. This can cause headaches or other pain, and the sharp parting lines on the headband tips can scratch the head. These issues are exacerbated when the user wears the headband for long periods of time, for example, during an eight-hour workday. It is not uncommon for user's to remove these hard headbands after as little as one or two hours of use due to the pain or onset of a headache.
Others have tried to resolve this problem by over-molding a soft rubber material at the ends of the headband to provide a cushioning material between the tips of the headband and the user's head. Also, others have tried to resolve this problem by extending the length and the width of the headband ends in order to distribute the pressure over a wider surface area. Furthermore, others have tried to correct sharp parting lines on tips by gluing fabric over the ends of the tips to prevent scratching. Soft headbands (e.g., made of fabric or a stretchy material) do not have these problems, but they are not the preferred headband choice for many women.
These proposed solutions have not solved these problems. For instance, the over-molded tips provide a small improvement, but this solution does not eliminate the problem, especially when the headband is worn for an extended period of time. And extending the tips in length and width was found to be only beneficial for a small portion of the population and was found to be worse in a majority of the users' due to it not “fitting” comfortable to their head shape.
An additional problem, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, exists due to prior art headbands 10 having a top inner surface 12 that is flat at the apex of the headband to allow the headbands to be reversible such that either of the edges 14, 16 of the headband may be oriented in the front when worn by the wearer. As shown in FIG. 1, the flat top inner surface 12 is approximately perpendicular to a centerline 18 extending along the lengths of the legs 20 of the headband 10. The headband 10 generally does not conform to the crown of the wearer's head 22 to allow the headband apex to sit flatly against the wearer's head when the headband is worn. Due to this prior art configuration, the flat top surface 12 leads to the presence a gap 24 between the wearer's head 22 and the rear edge 16 of the headband 10 when the headband is positioned on the wearer's head.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for hard headbands that sufficiently secure to the wearer's head and are usable by wearers with different sized and shaped heads, without exerting pressure that causes discomfort to the wearer. Additionally, a need exists for headbands that more closely conform to the contour of the wearer's head and do not create gaps between the wearers' heads and the rear edges of the headbands when properly positioned on the wearer's head. It is to the provision of solutions meeting these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.